Legends of Etherell: Antavia [Online RPG]
Development Team:
Team Etherell
Product Title:
Legends of Etherell: Antavia
Product Overview:
Legends of Etherell is the introduction of a completely unique iteration of the popular MMORPG genre. The team behind Legends of Etherell has created what they are labeling a True Online Role-Playing Game or TORPG for short. In Legends of Etherell, all elements play out as they would in a traditional RPG, with no deviation aside from the fact that they game cant conclude as with standard RPG titles. We look to present something fresh and realistic compared to the repetition found in the current selection of MMORPGS available.
Rather than focusing on the vast amount of characters that can be forced into a zone or region, we are primarily focused on creating the persistent world with a strong focus on the incorporation of traditional RPG elements such as NPC interaction, fully voiced dialogue, alternate dialogue choices with varying results, and really deep player progression and advancement. Our goal is to create a fully opened, sophisticated, and living world; one in which the player can exist without bounds, and become fully involved with. While the game is expected to have a large following, the current focus isnt primarily on the massive amount of players we can fit into a given area, instead we are centralized on building the most elaborate rendition of a persistent, open-world RPG we can.
To accommodate our style of development its most important to develop the game with scalability at its core. Therefore, weve chosen to develop our online framework based on [Update: Smartfox], an extremely sophisticated, scalable multi-player server solution that allows us to expand the amount of players allowed within the confines our our virtual world as the demands are required; the game currently makes use of the free solution, but will be expanding shortly. We've also partner with Janson Konstantin to utilize his "Advanced Multi-player Kit" (any one building and mmo or server-based online product should definitely consider it.)
Product Features:
(Gameplay)
Incredibly Lush Historical Literature/Documentation
Dynamic Event System
Alignment System
Unique Travel Systems
Highly Involving Guild Development System
Massive Faction Battles (WarFronts)
Career System
Profession System
Romance/Offspring System
Unique Crafting/Enchanting System
Elaborate Skill Progression System
Advanced Attribute/Skill Progression System
Consequential Death Element
Fully Voice NPC Dialogue System
Extremely Advance/ Real-time Combat System
Robust Class/Sub-Class System
Open-World PvP
Imprisonment System
Bounty System
Statistic Tracking For Profiles
Story Driven Gameplay
(World)
Highly Fantastical Medieval Setting
Dynamic Ecosystem
Dynamic Weather/Season System
Seamless Open-World (No Zoning)
Landscaping System
Home/Town Building System
Player-Driven Economy
Player Influenced Politics
Provincial/Territorial Domion
Extensive Geological Literature
Interactive World Elements
Target Audience:
Many current generation MMORPG players have cried out for something unique and original, something interesting and more realistic; less grind, more gameplay. This is something we are all enthusiastic about. Based on those facts, we have defined our target audience as those individuals; players interested in this nature of product. There is a very strong market demand for a game of this type, so we are more than confident we will receive much more support throughout the development of our product.
Member Compensation:
Our current business plan features a very reasonable profit share contract to insure that a percentage of each item sale will yield a payment to each team member. We are currently in negotiations with 2 long-term investors that are currently awaiting our initial online demonstration. Based on the "POSSIBLE" outcome of negotiation, our company (SilverHelm Studios LLC.) will issue each member an updated contract including promised entitlements to monthly or bi-monthly salary. Above I've stressed the word "POSSIBLE" because our company released suffered the loss of a publisher due to financial shortcoming stemming from the companys Executive Director being hospitalized indefinitely; this led to the unexpected the companys unexpected closing (Aluna Games Ltd. of Greater London). As a result, many members of the team became highly demoralized and many left.
We aren't asking members to work unrealistic hours as the product is currently unfunded. However, we are a registered and licensed business (SilverHelm Studios LLC. / Boise,ID) and must operate accordingly. We are still in discussions with serious long-term investors and are required to work consistently towards our alpha demonstration. We are prepared to issue profit-share contract, as stated above, to each members guaranteeing their earnings. I can't stress how enough that this is a very serious project, so should it be regarded as such. All details of development and internal/external design elements are protected by a confidentiality contract that will also be issued prior to any member joined our development team. I would be more than happy to discuss these stipulations and more information about the current investors that have received and responded to our press kits, with all applicants prior to joining our team.
Development Software:
Unity 3D
Nvidia Physx
Photoshop CS5
3D Studio Max 2012
Maya 2011
Z-Brush
Blender
Gimp
Zerano's Advanced Multiplayer Kit
MonoDevelop
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (C++)
Available Positions:
2 Animators/Riggers
-Animators/Riggers will weight vertices to specific bone rigs and animate them in accordance with requirements. Our company currently employs a local motion capture studio able to export motion data a 3DS max format efficiently. Therefore, we prefer our animators to be well versed in motion capture data conversion to their respective applications in the event that we are still required to utilize such information. (Reasonable knowledge of 3DS Max biped/cat and/or Maya rig and skinning procedures is required)
2 Concept Artist
-Concept artists will create 2D digital art renditions of various items to be recreated as 3D models for use in the game environment. They will be required to create various digital sketches (ink only), digital paintings (including color with minimal detail), and elaborate illustrations for promotional materials. They will be responsible for the creation of both organic and non-organic objects; including characters and environments. (Reasonable knowledge of anatomy (characters) and structural design integrity (buildings/props), painting/illustrating, and general art concepts (basic artistic principles) are required.)
2 3D Character Artists
-Character artists will create 3D character and armor meshes. They may be required to create normal maps for higher detail presentation due to the reduced mesh detail level for this type of game. (Reasonable knowledge of sculpting, normal baking, specular map creation, and retopology are required.)
2 3D Environment Artists
-Environment artists will create 3D world, structure, and objects meshes. They may be required to create normal maps for higher detail presentation due to the reduced mesh detail level for this type of game. (Reasonable knowledge of sculpting, normal baking, specular map creation, and retopology are required.)
1 Level Designers
-Level designers will create terrain blocks and apply other various sculpting and development procedures to terrain in accordance with the predefined map. They will be required to generate normal maps, height maps, and detail maps (if required) for higher detail presentation due to the reduced mesh detail level for this type of game. (Reasonable knowledge of sculpting, normal baking, specular map creation, height map generation, and minimal geology are required.)
2 General Programmers
-General programmers will be responsible to develop system elements such movement, aiming, artificial intelligence, interaction, and item storage. (Reasonable knowledge of C#, client to server communication, network structure, and database storage is required. Though general programmers will not be directly responsible for network coding, they may need to work with the network programmers to insure that all aspects of their designs work accordingly.)
1 UI Programmer (Complete)
-User interface programmers will be responsible to develop system elements such as vitals (health/mana/stamina) bars, windows, and other interactive on-screen elements. (Reasonable knowledge of C#, client to server communication, network structure, and database storage is required. Though the UI programmer will not be directly responsible for network coding, they may need to work with the network programmers to insure that all aspects of their designs work accordingly.)
1 Network Programmer
-Network programmers will be responsible to develop all network systems including elements such as database storage/maintaining, setting up servers for interaction with the client, managing MySql databases and their back-ups, and working with the other programmers to insure that client to server interaction works accordingly. (EXTENSIVE of all the following are required: in-depth C#, client to server communication, network structure, and database storage.)
Team structure:
Management
Project Manager (Joanna Wycoff)
Technical Director (Aaron Victoria)
Design
Lead Designer/Creator (Aaron Victoria)
Designer (Daniel Spuiro)
Designer (Silver Taufeek)
Lead Level Designer (Christian Krohn)
Level Designer (Philip "Vality" Arnold)
Art
Art Director/Concept Lead (Chad Dulac)
Lead Environment Artist (Mark Ward)
Environment Modeler (Chris Pyne)
Environment Modeler (Zhang Tsui)
Environment Modeler (Drew Flood)
Environment Modeler (Leonard Armstead)
Lead Character Modeler (William Barry)
Writing
Lead Writer (Corey Beasom)
Assistant Writer (Thor Mathiason)
Writer (Jennifer Jorgenson)
Writer (Craig Comer)
Programming
Technical Engineer/Development Partner (Janston Konstantin)
Programmer (Jason Clarke)
Programmer (Yohanes Indra)
Programmer (Simon McMahon)
Programmer (Mason Clark)
Programmer (Erno Lokkila)
Audio
Composer (Jeff Heim)
Sound Effect Engineer (Aaron Victoria)
Female Voice Actress (Laura Fedora)
Female Voice Actress (Jenny Krompel)
Female Voice Actress (Kira "Rhina Chan" Buckland)
Male Voice Actor (Teddy Bostik)
Male Voice Actor (Heath Jenkins)
Male Voice Actor (Travis Crane)
Analysis
Lead Tester (Kareem Brooks)
QA Engineer (Jeremy Ford)
Tester (James Morose)
Development Progress:
Over the last month our team has been making the transition from Torque3D to Unity3D. Prior to this move our alpha build was 35% complete with our MMO framework nearly complete; a few optimization parameter implementations and more server testing were required, but the project was operating well. After stepping back and taking a broader look at the advantages of Unity3D in regards to Torque3D, we noticed Unity3D would be the smarter and more advantageous choice. Unitys community is for more robust, the software is exceptionally well-rounded, and the platform support is great as well. [Update: We have partnered with Janson Konstantin to utilize a heavily modified version of his "Advanced Multiplayer Kit".] We're fortunate enough to now have a really great dedicated server provided by a good friend and business associate of mine (If you're seeing this, thanks Kacey for waving that executive authority and getting us the great dedicated machine for free; my wife was really getting annoyed at the climbing electric bill haha). The art division has one remaining base mesh and all the races for the games initial release will be done. We currently have about 20 various character models and quite a few armor sets that require rigging. All of our initial UI elements are complete as well and require proper implementation. The UI elements are: the equipment window, dropped item window, vitals/hotkey bar window, player statistics window, quest log window, and bag window. I've posted some of the images from the game in below.
Websites:
LoE Official Site
LoE Facebook
Contacts:
Aaron Victoria
My Email
Skype: beatsbyav
Additional Information:
The story take place across a vast landscape where players may journey and venture as they please. The emphasis of gameplay is mainly to give players the ability to pick up a control or keyboard, and immediately be able to get into the action. The leveling system is very traditional, but each class has 3 skill trees to help the player fine tune their personalized playing style. Players can embark on the main quest which is designed to have 6 possible final conclusions. Player can also gather a party and adventure into the massive open world without following the main quest line. There are even Careers in which players never have to partake in combat and can level up and progress just the same, but fulfilling local jobs and eventually owning their own businesses in the game.
Each town, city, village, empire, and kingdom will feature unique helpers, companions, enemies, and townspeople. Each of them has their own lives, and destinies that the player can alter. A large amount of these characters will offer side-quest or prestige missions to build your rank. Many expansions are planned as well, making the depth of the story ever-growing. While the player is playing the game, large amounts of data are secretly being saved. This data will later play a huge role in shaping the world in the fourth coming expansions as well as the planned sequel.
Images:
Imagery:
